It's very cold this morning — freezing, which is 0ºC, near the house, and that means it's probably several degrees colder out in the vineyard. It's my day to do the morning walk, and then today is the day we've picking for raking leaves. It will be frosty work. We need to get it done before the rains return.
Meanwhile, yesterday I went shopping in Saint-Aignan's newest grocery store. It's basically a big produce market stocked with local products. It also has a selection of meats, cheeses, and wines. That's my kind of place. I bought celery (stalks), flat green beans, red onions, escarole for salad, and a cucumber we'll use to make raïta yogurt sauce to have with the rest of the lamb curry at lunchtime. I also picked up some saucisses de Toulouse and some jambon blanc cut into cubes I can use like smoked pork lardons. And a couple of local cheeses, pictured here.
One of the cheeses, the square one, is a goat cheese called un pavé de Betz, and it's made with raw (unpasteurized) goat's milk. The other is called un Neuville, a cow's milk cheese (the round one) made from pasteurized milk. The goat's milk cheese has a light coating of ash, which is a common coating for goat cheeses around here. The cow's milk cheese is coated with cracked black peppercorns. Both are really good — you'll notice that I cut into them yesterday afternoon.
Both cheeses come from towns that are within 30 or 40 miles from Saint-Aignan. One, Betz-le-Château, is southwest of us, and the other, Montoire-sur-le-Loir, is to the northwest. I took close-up photos of the cheeses to show what the cheese really looks like. Above is the Neuville, and below is the pavé de Betz. Sorry you can't have tastes of each...
I would love it if somebody could tell me how Betz in pronounced locally — is it [beh]? Or [bess]? Or just like it look: [betz]? There's a town north of Paris named Betz, and it's pronounced [beh] according to one of my dictionaries. And then there's the city of Metz, where I worked as a teacher for a year way back when, and it's pronounced [mess].
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask the same question about the pronunciation of Betz. If I recall correctly, we stopped once in a winery at Francueil. I bought a square goat cheese there from Betz-le-Château and I asked the attendant how that was pronounced. He said beh. But, of course, Francueil is not at all in the vicinity of Betz, so, how did he know? Personnaly, I'd say bess, as in Metz. Vernacular pronunciation of localities is usually very tricky, wherever they are!
Interestingly, Retz, in Brittany, could also be spelled Rais (Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz and Giles de Rais) and probably pronunced as [rays].
The books I've looked at say Retz is pronounced [reh], but that [retz] is sometimes heard. Nobody says whether people using the second pronunciation live in the Pays de Retz or elsewhere. The young woman who cuts our hair here in Saint-Aignan told me last year that she has an aunt who lives in the Pays de Retz, and she pronounced it [reh].
DeleteLocal pronunciations are often not familiar to people from outside the region in question. For example, the Parisian pronunciation of Juliénas or Tournus sounds the final S, but local people I've known from those places say Tournu or Juliéna, sans S.
The recent catastrophic rains in Southern France put Biot on the map. Since the last consonnant is generally not voiced, when I talked about that small town on the Côte d'Azur, I said [bio]. Tough luck, the locals say [biotte]! Most often, local pronunciations do not seem to follow any logical rule.
DeleteI'm sorry I can't have a taste of each too! I'm afraid I'm déclassé and must ask the terribly American question re the cheese coating. Seriously. We can eat the cracked peppercorns, but carve off the ash I presume? I know enough not to eat the wax on a Gouda, lol.
ReplyDeleteThose online "how to pronounce" functions say Betz in French is "bessz." chm's explanation of local pronunciations reminds me of "Prescott, AZ" which is pronounced Press-kit or Prescuit, like biscuit. And the locals are quick to tell you so.
Several times, Frank and I visited friends in Prescott, AZ. I wasn't aware of the local pronunciation, but I'm not an expert in that field ;-)
DeleteNo, you definitely eat the ash on the goat cheeses. It's tasty and isn't grainy or crunchy. It's not just any ash but made with certain plants that are edible.
DeleteI've found pronunciation sites like Forvo to be hit-or-miss, depending on the informant who recorded the pronunciation. A lot of people in France think the T in the name of the town just down the river from us, Montrichard, is silent. It's not, locally. The town's name is pronounced [mon-tree-shar].
I didn't know about Prescott AZ. Thanks for that. Other examples of such local ways of saying names are Cairo [kay-roh] in Illinois and Versailles [vur-sails] in Indiana. Of course in the Carolinas you have Beaufort [bo-furt] N.C. and Beaufort [byoo-furt] S.C. Not to mention [dess-plains] in Illinois and [dih-moyn] in Iowa. In our area Noyers is pronounced [nwah-yay] but a town in Burgundy with the same name is [nwah-yehr].
Ken thanks for answering that eternal question about the cheese exterior! I thought ash meant ash from wood...
DeleteSo many French named towns in the States with anglicized pronunciation!
Ken, when I saw your description of the new store as being "a big produce market stocked with lots of local products", I thought to myself, "Hmmm, that's got to be Ken's kind of place"... and your next line was, "That's my kind of place". Ha!
ReplyDeleteTowns: Amherst in Massachusetts, is pronounced without the h, by locals (so, Amm-errst), but the college kids and visitors always pronounce the h.
And then there's Saint-Louis and Louisville. In French, I've heard people on TV say [loo-eess-veel} in French, thinking they've got the American pronunciation down pat. California is full of places with Spanish-derived place names that get mangled by newcomers to the state. San Franciscans (many recently arrived) are quick to tell others that both SanFran and Frisco are verboten. It's either San Francisco, no abbreviated forms allowed, or just "The City."
Deletedon't get me started on how people pronounce New Orleans !! hint...not Nawlins and not New Orleens! more like Nu-RLens
ReplyDeletei love cheeses coated with peppercorns...kinda rare to find here
I would love a taste of those cheeses. Is there a Versailles in Indiana? I know of one mispronounced near Lexington, KY.
ReplyDeleteThere's a Versailles in Indiana, and one in Illinois too. I forgot about the one in Kentucky. I think it's normal for people to adapt foreign names to make them fit better into their language.
DeleteThere's also Calais, Maine, pronounced "callous". And BELfast, Maine, but BelFAST, Ireland.
ReplyDeleteThose cheeses look delicious, although I doubt we could get the Betz one in the US, given the fetish with pasturizing everything.